Reverse dependency injection in a system with dynamic code loading

ABSTRACT

Embodiments are directed to utilizing reverse dependency injection for managing bootstrapping of applications in web browser and mobile environments. By using reverse dependency injection, embodiments enable a component to declare that it is a “dependency of” another component in a visual analyzer application. This ensures that the dependencies are loaded before the other component is loaded, thereby minimizing delays when a user starts up an application. In some embodiments, information identifying a plugin to be loaded can be received. Embodiments can determine configuration information for the plugin where the configuration information includes both forward and reverse dependencies. Embodiments may generate, based on the configuration information, a data structure that represents the forward and reverse dependencies. Embodiments may analyze the data structure to determine an ordered list of loadings. Some embodiments may load the individual components per the ordered list of loadings and indicate that the plugin is ready for execution.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a non-provisional application and claims the benefitand priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/056,420, filed onSep. 26, 2014, titled “REVERSE DEPENDENCY INJECTION IN A SYSTEM WITHDYNAMIC CODE LOADING,” and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/079,363,filed on Nov. 13, 2014, titled “VISUAL ANALYZER SYSTEM,” both of whichare herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Frameworks and Web environments using Java and other compiled languages(e.g., Spring Framework) may use regular dependency injection thatallows a component to declare that it requires another component.Typically, a system can simply create an instance of the other componentwhen the system determines that the component needs the other componentand that there is not one already created. However, when the system isbeing run in a Web browser, there may be long delays when the systemneeds to request the JavaScript file that implements the other componentfrom the server as the user performs a request to interact with thecomponent. An instance may not be created without noticeable delays evenwhile performing an asynchronous call to the server to download theJavaScript file. It would be inefficient and diminishing for the userexperience for the system to load and create an instance of the othercomponent at the point when the system determines that the othercomponent is needed.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are directed to utilizing reverse dependency injection formanaging bootstrapping of applications in web browser and mobileenvironments. In some embodiments, a visual analyzer framework may havean application of components in which forward and reverse dependenciesare declared. Some embodiments allow one or more components to declarethat it is a “dependency” on another component (also referred to as areverse dependency relationship). Utilizing reverse dependency injectionenables dependencies to be loaded before the other component is loaded,thereby minimizing delays when a user starts up an application.

When a user signals to launch an application, the visual analyzerframework may determine forward and reverse dependency relationshipsamong the components of the application. A complex dependency graph maybe built for the components where the graph indicates the componentsthat need to be loaded and the order in which the components should beloaded before the application may be ready for interaction with a user.In some embodiments, this framework enables the building of anarchitecture where the top-level component need not know about thedependencies of its children.

Some embodiments provide techniques (e.g., a method, a system,non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code or instructionsexecutable by one or more processors) for enabling a component todeclare that it is a dependency on another component, or in other words,declare a reverse dependency relationship with the other component. Onesuch technique can include receiving, by one or more processors,information identifying a plugin to be loaded; determining configurationinformation for the plugin; based on the configuration information,generating a data structure which represents both the forward andreverse dependencies; analyzing the data structure to determine anordered list of loadings; loading the individual components based on theordered list of loadings; and indicating that the plugin is ready forexecution.

In some embodiments, the forward dependency indicates one or morecomponents that are declaratively needed by a component in the plugin.In certain embodiments, the reverse dependency indicates that thecomponent declares that the component is needed by one or more othercomponents. The technique can further include enabling a set ofcomponents to declare forward and reverse dependencies with another setof components for the plugin, where a component is declared to be areverse dependency of another component, and where the component isloaded prior to providing an indication that the other component isready for execution. In certain embodiments, the component is a dataservice component and wherein the other component is a report componentor a data visualization component of a visual analyzer application.

In some embodiments, the configuration information includes dependencyinformation between components of the plugin. The technique can furtherinclude storing first dependency information for a first component, thefirst dependency information indicating that the first component is adependency of a second component; receiving a signal to load the secondcomponent; determining, based on the first dependency information, thatthe first component is a dependency of the second component; and loadingboth an instance of the first component and an instance of the secondcomponent responsive to the signal.

In certain embodiments, the first component is a data service componentand the second component is a report component. The technique canfurther include receiving, via the second component, a first request tocreate an instance of a first visualization component and a secondrequest to create an instance of a second visualization component;responsive to the first request, loading an instance of the firstvisualization component, the first visualization component dependingupon the first component; using, by the instance of the firstvisualization component, the instance of the first component; responsiveto the second request, loading an instance of the second visualizationcomponent, the second visualization component depending upon the firstcomponent; and using, by the instance of the second visualizationcomponent, the same instance of the first component. The technique canfurther include storing second dependency information for the secondcomponent, where the second dependency information does not indicatethat the second component is dependent upon the first component.

Some embodiments can managing bootstrapping of applications in webbrowser and mobile environments by providing a visual analyzer pluginframework that utilizes reverse dependency injection. In someembodiments, a component can declare that it is a dependency of anothercomponent and ensure that the component is loaded before the othercomponent is loaded. By ensuring that both the forward and reversedependencies are loaded before an application is presented as ready forinteraction with a user can reduce delays. For example when a userstarts up a visual analyzer application via a Web browser and accessesthe visual analyzer system via the Web browser, if a data serviceinstance has not been pre-loaded, the user may experience undesirabledelays in interacting with a visualization waiting for the data serviceinstance to be created.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a plugin loader inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example block diagram of a computing environmentin accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process of loading an application thatuses reverse dependency injection in accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIGS. 4A-4D illustrate an example of utilizing reverse dependencyinjection to load JavaScript modules in a visual analyzer applicationaccording to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for enabling one or morecomponents to use a pre-loaded instance of a data service component whenreverse dependency injection is utilized in accordance with certainembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified diagram of a distributed system forimplementing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of one or more components of asystem environment in which services may be offered as cloud services,in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer system that may be used toimplement an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofembodiments of the invention. However, it will be apparent that variousembodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The figuresand description are not intended to be restrictive. Embodiments may bedescribed hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich some, but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Theinvention may be embodied in many different forms and should not beconstrued as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to techniques (e.g., asystem, a method, a memory or non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring code or instructions executable by one or more processors) forusing reverse dependency injection in bootstrapping an application suchas a Web application. In some embodiments, a user may interact with avisual analyzer system through a Web application. In certainembodiments, depending on how the application is bootstrapped,interacting with a component of the visual analyzer system may requirethe use of another component that may not be readily available. It maybe necessary to go to the server and get new Web pages or JavaScriptfiles loaded from the server. For instance, if a data service instanceis not pre-loaded when a user begins interacting with a visualizationcomponent in a visual analyzer application, the application may thenneed to create an instance of the data service. In the meantime, theuser may encounter a lag in the system, thereby causing the userexperience to be greatly diminished. Some embodiments can provide avisual analyzer plugin framework that uses reverse dependency injection.In some embodiments, a component can declare that it is a dependency ofanother component to ensure that the dependency component is loadedbefore the other component is loaded. Certain embodiments may ensurethat dependencies are loaded before allowing a user to interact with theapplication. As such, delays may be minimized when a user beginsinteracting with the various components of a visual analyzer applicationthrough the Web browser.

In some embodiments, information identifying a plugin to be loaded canbe received. Embodiments can determine configuration information for theplugin where the configuration information includes both forward andreverse dependencies. Embodiments may generate, based on theconfiguration information, a data structure that represents the forwardand reverse dependencies. Embodiments may analyze the data structure todetermine an ordered list of loadings. Some embodiments may load theindividual components per the ordered list of loadings and indicate thatthe plugin is ready for execution.

In some embodiments, a visual analyzer system can present one or morevisualizations to a user via a visual analyzer application presented bya web browser (e.g., on a mobile device). In certain embodiments, avisualization is a visual representation of some data. In oneembodiment, a visualization can display graphic elements, shapes and/ortext. Examples of a visualization may include a table, a cross table, agraphical table, a bar chart, a line chart, a combination chart, a piechart, a scatterplot, a map chart, a treemap, a heat map, a parallelcoordinate plot, a summary table, a box plot, a text area, a usercreated or customizable chart, etc. The visual analyzer system maygenerate a visualization with multiple graphical attributes (alsoreferred to as edges) that each correspond to a specified dimension. Forexample, a visual analyzer application can generate a bar chart withcolor, axis, size attributes that each corresponds to a dimensionspecified by a user such as time, sales, and entities. Each dimensionmay also have one or more dimension members, such as years 2009, 2010,2011, company names X, Y, Z, and different types of products, etc.

Each visualization can include values for multiple dimensions of datafrom one or more columns in a database in some embodiments. A databasecan be a relational database that includes one or more tables. A tablecan have a set of rows and a set of columns. A dimension can correspondto a column of a table (or a database) while a record can correspond toa row of a table (or a database). In some embodiments, the visualanalyzer application user interface (e.g., displayed through a webbrowser) can provide a projection of one or more databases. The user canidentify one or more dimensions of data available in the one or moredatabases and request the visual analyzer application to generate avisual representation that represents the one or more dimensions of dataretrieved from the databases.

In some embodiments, a visualization can have one or more edges (alsosometimes referred to as an attribute) that represent the variousdimensions (also referred to as criteria or columns of a database) ofthe visualization. A common set of edges can include row (also referredto as x-axis), column (also referred to as y-axis), category, values,color shape, size, etc. For example, a scatter chart may use all ofthose edges. A bar chart may use row, column, category, values, color,and size. A pivot table may use all of the common set of edges exceptfor detail. A map may use row, column, category, color (map shape),color (bubble), and size. Different dimensions can include revenue,brand, year, company name, product type, etc. A dimension can berepresented by an edge of a visualization. For example, a branddimension can be represented by the color edge of a pie chart (or anyother type of visualization), a revenue dimension can be shown in thevalues edge of a bar chart (or any other type of visualization), a yeardimension can be shown in the rows edge (e.g., trellis rows that aregood for small multiples), a company dimension can be shown in thecolumns edge (e.g., trellis columns), a product type dimension can berepresented by the shape edge where each distinct value (also referredto as dimension member) is assigned a shape (e.g., circle, square,diamond, etc.), etc.

Each visualization may have configuration information that includes oneor more edge identifiers identifying the edges of a visualization, oneor more edge values corresponding to each edge, and one or more edgetags for each edge. The edge identifiers identifying the edges of avisualization can include a visualization type, a color, a size, anarea, x-axis, y-axis, geo-coordinates, etc. Different visualizations ofdifferent visualization types may have a different set of edges. Forinstance a pie chart can have the following edges: color, size, etc.while a bar chart may have the following edges: x/col, y/row, color,category, values, color, size, etc.

Each edge can have one or more edge values and one or more edge tags(also referred to as functional tags or just tags). In some embodiments,the functional tags can be properties of edges on a visualization thatdescribe what those edges do to a data column. In some embodiments, theedge tag can indicate whether an edge is a required edge or not arequired edge for a visualization. If the edge tag indicates that anedge is a required edge, then the edge must have a value for thevisualization to render in some embodiments. Certain embodiments may nothave any required edges for any visualization.

The visual analyzer system can generate one or more visualizations basedon one or more dimensions of data specified by a user. For example, theuser may specify multiple dimensions such as time, sales, and entitiesto be represented by a visualization. The visual analyzer system maythen generate a visualization with multiple edges (also referred to asgraphical attributes) that each correspond to a specified dimension. Forexample, a visual analyzer application can generate a bar chart withcolor, axis, size edges that each corresponds to a dimension specifiedby a user such as time, sales, and entities, respectively. As described,the visual representation may be a pie chart, bar chart, or any othertype of graphic where different edges such as color, axis, size, etc.can represent the desired dimensions specified by the user.

Systems depicted in some of the figures may be provided in variousconfigurations. In some embodiments, the systems may be configured as adistributed system where one or more components of the system aredistributed across one or more networks in one or more cloudinfrastructure systems.

As used herein, the term “forward dependency” is used to refer to acomponent declaring that it requires or needs another component. Forinstance, A declares that A needs or “depends on” B. The component thathas a forward dependency relationship with the other component knows ofthe other component in order to be able to declare that it “depends on”the other component.

As used herein, the term “reverse dependency” is used to refer to acomponent declaring that another components needs the component. Forinstance, rather than A declaring that A needs or “depend on” B, Adeclares that A is needed by B. If the component has a reversedependency relationship with the other component, then if the othercomponent is loaded, the component should also be loaded.

The term “server” as used herein typically refers to an application thatexecutes and operates as a server according to a client-server protocol.Some examples of servers include database servers, web servers,application servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, gamingservers, etc. In some contexts, though, the term “server” may also referto computing hardware that can or does execute a server application.However, the particular meaning of a use of the term “server” will beapparent to those of skill in the art based upon its context of use.

Conventional application frameworks or environments utilizing Java andother compiled languages (e.g., Spring Framework) may use regulardependency injection. When developing a component in e.g., a Javaprogram, regular dependency injection allows a component to declare thatif it is e.g., a data visualization, then it must have a handle to thedata service because the data visualization would need to fetch itsdata. As such, the visualization declares e.g., in an XML file, that itneeds a data service. The framework creates the visualization, reads theXML file and determines that this visualization component needs a dataservice. The framework then creates the data service and provides ahandle to that visualization. In this instance, the visualization neednot care about creation of dependencies since it just declares that itneeds a data service (or any other service) and the framework thatcreates the visualization will then become aware of that. Regulardependency injection is a common pattern that is used when developingprograms in Java.

In such environments targeted mostly for Java and other compiledlanguages, a system may simply create an instance of a data service whena visualization component indicates that it needs a data service.However, in a Web environment, an instance of a data service cannot becreated immediately without doing an asynchronous call to the server todownload the JavaScript file. When the system is being run via a Webbrowser, there may be long delays for the system to request theJavaScript file that implements the data service from the server(s). Itwould not be efficient to load and create the data service instance atthe point when the system determines that the data service is needed inresponse to a user's interaction with the visualization. As such, thereis a need for a more efficient system that can minimize delays when theuser interacts with the various components of a visual analyzer systemin the Web environment.

In some embodiments, a plugin framework can provide a module dependencymechanism where forward and reverse dependencies can be declared. Forinstance, a view suggest component can be associated with a reportcomponent where report component does not need view suggest component tofunction. Instead of declaring view suggest module as a dependency inreport module, it is declared as a module dependency to report modulevia the module dependency mechanism. As such, the plugin frameworkensures that view suggest module is loaded before report module isloaded in some embodiments.

As described, some embodiments relate to enabling a first component todeclare that it is a “dependency of” a second component (also referredto as a reverse dependency relationship). This can be differentiatedfrom the situation where the second component declares that it dependsupon the first component. In an embodiment, the second component may noteven be aware of the first component. For example, consider a reportgeneration application executed by a browser on a client device: theapplication may include a report component that can be used to createmultiple visualization components. The visualization components may eachneed to use a data service component. In the past, the visualizationcomponents would each declare them to be dependent upon the data servicecomponents. However, according to some embodiments, the data servicecomponent instead declares that it is a dependency of the reportcomponent. Accordingly, whenever the report component is to be loaded,an instance of the data service component is also loaded independent ofthe visualization components. As such, when instances of thevisualization component are loaded, they can use the pre-loaded instanceof the data service component.

In some embodiments, creation and loading of a visualization componentdoes not have to wait for the creation and loading of a data service andcan use the pre-loaded data service component. Also, when multiplevisualization components are to be created, the problem of potentiallycreating multiple instances of the data service components is alsoavoided since the visualization components can all use the same instanceof the pre-loaded data service component. According to certainembodiments, a dependency analysis may then no longer be necessary wherethe information is stored on the server and that the user would need togo back and forth with the server to retrieve dependency information andload a component (e.g., a data service component) when the component isdetermined to be needed. This “pre-setup” anticipates what a user of thevisual analyzer application may need and may do with respect to theinteractions with components of the application. Instead of requiringeach component to be hardcoded with what each component is dependentupon, enabling each component to declare its forward and reversedependencies provides flexibility.

I. System Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a plugin loader 100 inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention. In someembodiments, plugin loader 100 can determine forward and reversedependencies among components of a plugin and load the multiplecomponents before indicating that the plugin is ready for execution. Incertain embodiments, plugin loader 100 can be part of a standaloneexecutable application such as a visual analyzer application, a portionof an application (e.g., a browser application or a local application),a configuration file to be used with another application, etc. withcomponents distributed across one or more servers or a client device.

A visual analyzer application can display one or more visual analyzercomponents (e.g., a visualization, a toolbar, a data elements pane) viaa graphical user interface (GUI) e.g., on a client device. Userinteraction with a component may require the use of one or morecomponents of the application that may or may not be available at themoment the component requires access to the one or more components. If acomponent that is needed by the user interaction with the othercomponent is unavailable, the application may send a request to one ormore servers to create an instance of the component.

For instance, user interaction with a visualization may require the useof an instance of a data service component. If the instance of the dataservice is not available when the user requests to modify the datarepresented by the visualization, the application may send a request toone or more servers to generate the instance of the data service.Requiring the application to request for additional components at thetime they are needed causes a lag in the system, requiring the user towait until the additional components have been generated to perform anyadditional requests. Plugin loader 100 may minimize lag time andprocessing inefficiencies and increase responsiveness of a visualanalyzer application accessed via a Web browser by utilizing forward andreverse dependency relationships among components of the application.

As shown, in certain embodiments, plugin loader 100 can include adependency graph generator 102, a graph analyzer 104, a loader 106, andmemory 108. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 1 is merely an example andis not intended to unduly limit the claimed embodiments of the presentinvention. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize manyvariations, alternatives, and modifications.

In some embodiments, dependency graph generator 102 can create adependency graph (also referred to as a component hierarchy graph) for asoftware component such as a plugin module. A plugin can be aclient-accessible resource or a package of resources (e.g., JavaScript,CSS, resource bundle, XSD schema, images, etc.). In certain embodiments,the dependency graph can be generated using configuration informationassociated with the plugin module. The dependency graph can includeforward and reverse dependency information for components of the pluginmodule. The hierarchical structure of the graph can indicate the forwardand reverse dependency relationships among various components of theplugin. By traversing the dependency graph, some embodiments candetermine an order in which to load the components. In some embodiments,the root node of the dependency graph can represent the report componentor the visual analyzer application indicating that the application isnot set to start until all the child nodes have been loaded. In someembodiments, dependency graph generator 102 may execute on a computingdevice such as a server or on a client device.

In certain embodiments, graph analyzer 104 may analyze the dependencygraph by traversing the dependency graph and then ordering the list ofcomponent loadings. The list of component loadings may indicate theorder in which the components should be loaded. For example, the list ofcomponent loadings may indicate to load in component C, then componentA, then component D, etc. In some embodiments, graph analyzer 104 mayexecute on a computing device such as a server or on a client device.

Loader 106 may load one or more components for the plugin before pluginloader 100 may indicate that the plugin is ready for execution andinteraction with a user. In some embodiments, loader 106 may load thecomponents in an order specified by a list. In certain embodiments,loader 106 may execute on a client computing device.

Memory 108 can include configuration information 110 for one or moreplugin modules, dependency graph 112, ordered list of loadings 114, anda registry of plugin components 116. Configuration information 110 caninclude forward and reverse dependency information for components in aplugin. For instance, configuration information 110 for a plugin canindicate the components in the plugin that have declared that thecomponents need one or more other components. Configuration information110 for the plugin can also indicate the components that have declaredthat the components are needed by one or more other components. Someembodiments can determine configuration information for a plugin basedon the configuration block of software code for each component of theplugin. Within the configuration block of software code, the forward andreverse dependency information for a component can be declared incertain embodiments. As such, dependency graph generator 102 can useconfiguration information 110 to generate the dependency graph for theplugin.

In some embodiments, dependency graph 112 can include a dependency graphfor one or more plugins. The dependency graph can be a hierarchicalgraph that indicates the relationship among different components of aplugin. For instance, a dependency graph may indicate that certaincomponents are parent nodes while other components may be child nodes.In some embodiments, a dependency graph can indicate the components thatare needed to be loaded in order for a component (e.g., a parent node)to be ready for execution. In certain embodiments, a dependency graphmay also convey a forward dependency relationship between two (or more)components. The dependency graph may also convey a reverse dependencyrelationship between two (or more) components. Different embodiments mayhave different organizational structures for the dependency graph.

In certain embodiments, ordered list of loadings 114 may include a list(e.g., an array) that indicates one or more components to be loaded inan order. Loader 106 may load one or more components of a plugin basedon an order indicated by ordered list of loadings 114. In someembodiments, loader 106 may retrieve the one or more components fromregistry of plugin components 116 in memory 108.

In some embodiments, registry of plugin components 116 includes thecomponents of a plugin (can also be referred to as subcomponents of aplugin component) to be loaded by loader 106. Plugin components 116 canbe loaded by loader 106 based on an order indicated by ordered list ofloadings 114. In some embodiments, plugin components 116 can include adata service instance. In certain embodiments, the plugin components canbe located across various servers.

In some embodiments, plugin loader 100 can receive a request for aplugin. For example, a user may request, via a browser on a clientcomputing device, to start a visual analyzer application or a report inthe application. Upon receiving the request, dependency graph generator102 can obtain configuration information 110 for the plugin and generatea dependency graph based on the forward and reverse dependencyinformation for various components of the report component inconfiguration information 110. Graph analyzer 104 may then analyzedependency graph 112 and generate an ordered list of loadings 114.Loader 106 may load the individual components 116 one after anotherbased on ordered list of loadings 114. After plugin components 116 havebeen loaded, the plugin may be ready for execution. In some embodiments,plugin loader 100 may send a signal to user device indicating that thevarious components of plugin loader 100 have been loaded and that theplugin is now ready for execution and available for interaction with theuser.

II. Example Computing Environment

FIG. 2 illustrates an example block diagram of a computing environment200 in accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention. Asshown, computing environment 100 includes a visual analyzer system 202communicatively coupled to client device 204 and data service(s) 206 viaa communication network 208. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 is merelyan example and is not intended to unduly limit the claimed embodimentsof the present invention. One of ordinary skill in the art wouldrecognize many variations, alternatives, and modifications. For example,visual analyzer system 202 can be part of client device 204. In anotherexample, visual analyzer system 202 and/or visual analyzer module 220 orcomponents of visual analyzer module 220 (e.g., renderer 222 or loader224) can be located on one or more servers.

Client device 204 may be of various different types, including, but notlimited to a personal computer, a desktop, a mobile or handheld devicesuch as a laptop, a mobile phone, a tablet, etc., and other types ofdevices. Communication network 208 facilitates communications betweenone or more client devices such as client device 204 and visual analyzersystem 202. Communication network 208 can be of various types and caninclude one or more communication networks. For example, communicationnetwork 208 can include, without restriction, the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), an Ethernet network, a publicor private network, a wired network, a wireless network, and the like,and combinations thereof. Different communication protocols may be usedto facilitate the communications including both wired and wirelessprotocols such as IEEE 802.XX suite of protocols, TCP/IP, IPX, SAN,AppleTalk, Bluetooth, and other protocols. In general, communicationnetwork 208 may include any communication network or infrastructure thatfacilitates communications between one or more client devices such asclient device 204 and visual analyzer system 202.

Client device 204 can display one or more visual representations (alsoreferred to as data visualizations, graphics, charts, a type ofcomponent, or vizs) through a web browser or a GUI of a visual analyzerapplication in some embodiments. A visual representation can begenerated based on dimensions of data (also referred to as columns in adatabase, or business objects) identified by a user of client device204. In some embodiments, a user of client device 204 can select one ormore dimensions of data 218 available from various data services 206.Upon receiving the user's selection of the one or more dimensions ofdata 218, visual analyzer module 220 can obtain the requested data fromdata service 206 via communication network 208 and generate a visualrepresentation 226. Renderer 222 can then render visual representation226 on GUI 224 of browser 224 on client device 204.

The various components of plugin loader 100 from FIG. 1 can be showndistributed across visual analyzer system 202 and visual analyzer module220 in this example. A GUI 224 can present one or more plugins (e.g., areport component, a visualization component 226) to a user and allow theuser to interact with the one or more plugins when a plugin loader(similar to plugin loader 100 from FIG. 1) or components of the pluginloader indicates that the plugin is ready for execution and interactionin some embodiments.

In certain embodiments, visual analyzer module 220 can generate multiplevisual analyzer components (e.g., data visualizations, windows, menus,property panes, etc.) and cause those components 226 to be displayed ona dashboard of the application (e.g., GUI 224). In some embodiments,visual analyzer module 220 on client device 204 can be part of a browserapplication or a local application. The web browser or the visualanalyzer application user interface can provide a projection of one ormore databases. The user can identify one or more dimensions of dataavailable in the one or more databases and request the visual analyzerapplication to generate a visual representation that represents the oneor more dimensions of data retrieved from the databases. As described,an example of a database is a relational database with columns and rows.A dimension of data can correspond to a column in a database whilerecords can correspond to the rows in the database.

Visual analyzer system 202 can include multiple components such as, butnot limited to, dependency graph generator 230 (similar to dependencygraph generator 102 of FIG. 1), graph analyzer 232 (similar to graphanalyzer 104 of FIG. 1), and memory 208 including configurationinformation 210, dependency graph 212, ordered list of loadings 214, andone or more sub-components of one or more plugin components 216. Eachplugin component can have multiple sub-components and a plugin componentmay have its associated configuration information 210 stored in memory206. In some embodiments, the configuration information 210 for eachplugin includes both forward dependencies and reverse dependencies amongthe various components of the plugin. For instance, the configurationinformation for a plugin component can specify that sub-component A'sforward dependency is on sub-component B (i.e., A needs (or depends) onB). The configuration information for the plugin component can alsospecify that sub-component C's reverse dependency is on sub-component A(i.e., C is needed by A). Reverse dependency is when a componentdeclares that if this other component is loaded (e.g., A) then thecomponent should also be loaded (e.g., C), or this other component (e.,A) needs the component (e.g., C), without requiring A to know anythingabout C. In other words, rather than C needing A, C is needed by A,while A does not declare or know anything about C.

In some embodiments, the client side 204 can include a browser 224 whichhas a loader 228 associated with the browser. Upon receiving a userrequest to start an application or to create a report (e.g., from client204), dependency graph generator 230 (or a separate framework manager(not shown here)) can generate a dependency graph 130 for bootstrappingthe application. As described, in some embodiments, a dependency graphfor a component such as an application can indicate dependencyrelationship between various components that may have declared direct orreverse dependency with the component(s). The dependency graph may beindicate which components or services may be necessary for certaincomponents to be operational. In certain embodiments, the dependencygraph may provide information as to which components need to be loadedbefore which components and/or which service instances need to becreated prior to which components.

In some embodiments, dependency graph generator 230 may create thedependency graph for the component by retrieving configurationinformation 210 associated with the component. The configurationinformation 210 associated with the plugin component can include anumber of module declarations among the different sub-components of theplugin component. In some embodiments, a system administrator, adeveloper, or a user can declare dependencies between variouscomponents. Dependency relationships between two modules/components canbe stored in configuration information 210. As described, embodimentsprovide the ability of a component to declare that it is a dependency ofsome other component so that when the other component gets executed thecomponent is also executed. Configuration information 210 can be aplugin .XML file in a root directory of the plugin package, whichcontains declaration of modules, resources, and extensions. This filecan then be read by the server side plugin service such as dependencygraph generator 230 (or a framework manager).

In some embodiments, dependency graph generator 230 can be located onclient 204. Upon receiving the user request to load the plugin, theassociated configuration information 210 may be downloaded onto client204. Dependency graph generator 230 may then create the dependency graphusing the downloaded configuration information 210. The dependency graphmay represent the forward and reverse dependencies based onconfiguration information (e.g., dependencies declarations in the code)of the various components of the plugin.

Graph analyzer 232 may analyze the generated dependency graph 212 bytraversing the graph and then generate an ordered list of componentloadings 214. The list of component loadings 214 may indicate the orderin which the components should be loaded. For example, the list ofcomponent loadings may indicate to load in sub-components C, then A,then, D, etc. This list may be sent to the loader component 228, whichthen loads the components 216 in the order specified by the list. Afterloading the components 216, the plugin may now be ready for execution.

In some embodiments, loader 228 can create instances of various services(e.g., data service, report editing service) and/or load variouscomponents based on the ordered list of components. After the necessarycomponents are loaded and the necessary service instances are created,in certain embodiments, loader 228 may send an indication that theapplication is ready to be used. Visual analyzer module 220 on client204 may then allow a user to start using the application. Renderer 222may render the appropriate window to the user via GUI on browser 224.The user may then create graphics using various tools provided by thevisual analyzer application. For instance, a data service may be readybefore the application is started and a report created. When the userstarts to create the data visualizations, the data service would bereadily available.

In some embodiments, there may be multiple visualizations that all usethe same components. For example, there may be multiple components thatall use the same service. Instead of loading multiple instances of theservice, some embodiments need not load multiple instances of theservice and may just load the service once. Since the service mayalready be loaded, subsequent instances of the visualization may stilluse the same instance of the previously loaded data service instance. Incertain embodiments, it would no longer be necessary to load anotherinstance of the data service as multiple instances of the same componentis not needed.

III. Example Flow Chart

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process 300 of loading an application thatuses reverse dependency injection in accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention. Embodiments provide a visual analyzer pluginframework that enables services and components to declare that it is adependency for another component. For instance, a service such as a dataservice may declare that it is a dependency for a report component. Thevisual analyzer system ensures that the service dependencies andcomponent dependencies are ready before the application is madeavailable to the user.

At block 302, process 300 can receive information regarding plugin to beloaded. In some embodiments, an application can receive a user requestto interact with a plugin component or other type of component that ispart of the visual analyzer application. The information regarding theplugin to be loaded can be information identifying the plugin component.In some embodiments, identifying information can include a unique ID andversion of the plugin.

At block 304, process 300, can determine configuration information forthe plugin. A plugin can have multiple components. A component candeclare forward dependencies and/or reverse dependencies. An example ofa forward dependency is when the component declares that the componentneeds another component. The reverse dependency would be when anothercomponent declares that the other component is needed by the component.Some embodiments can determine the configuration information for theplugin by analyzing the software code declarations for each component ofthe plugin.

At block 306, process 300 can, based on configuration information,generate a data structure that represents both forward and reversedependencies. One embodiment of the data structure can be a graph. Therecould be other types of data structures as well. Some embodiments maygenerate a dependency graph that shows the forward and reversedependencies among multiple components that are part of the requestedplugin component.

At block 308, process 300 can analyze the data structure to determinethe ordered list of loadings. Some embodiments may traverse thedependency graph and determine an order in which the components are tobe loaded.

At block 310, process 300 can load the individual components per theordered list of loadings. In some embodiments, the loading may beperformed on the client. In certain embodiments, a loader may be on theserver side where the loader may send the components to the client in anorder identified by the ordered list of loadings. The client may thenreceive the components to load in an order and load them individually.

At block 312, process 300 can indicate that the plugin is ready forexecution. Upon completing the loading of the components, the visualanalyzer application may mark each component as ready for execution andenable the user to interact with the plugin (e.g., a report component ofthe visual analyzer application, or the application itself). In certainembodiments, the user may now interact with a report in a visualanalyzer application. The user can proceed to create one or morevisualization components that may utilize data service components thathave already been created.

IV. Example of Utilizing Reverse Dependency Injection to Load JavaScriptModules in a Visual Analyzer Application

FIGS. 4A-4D illustrate an example of utilizing reverse dependencyinjection to load JavaScript modules in a visual analyzer applicationaccording to some embodiments of the present invention. As described, insome embodiments, the visual analyzer application may be implemented inJavaScript and primarily executed in Web browsers and mobile devices. Incertain embodiments, the code can use one of, or a combination of, codedependencies, component dependencies, and service dependencies.

For code dependency injection, some embodiments may use a framework suchas RequireJS. FIG. 4A illustrates an example of the code implementingone module. In this example, a module can declare its dependencies on 8external modules. In some embodiments, the framework ensures that themodules are loaded before module creation function is called with areference to each of the modules as arguments. In certain embodiments, avisual analyzer plugin can be described by a plugin.xml file in the rootdirectory of the plugin package, which can contain the declaration ofmodules, resources, and extensions. In some embodiments, a server sideplugin service (e.g., dependency graph generator 102 in FIG. 1 or pluginloader 100) can read the plugin.xml file to determine the forward andreverse dependencies among the various modules (also referred to ascomponents) for the visual analyzer plugin.

For component dependencies, as part of the implementation of the pluginframework, some embodiments may create instances of components that arenot known by the module that is creating them. Some embodiments may havea registry of plugin components and determine which plugins to use e.g.,by asking the user. Certain embodiments may then create instances of thecomponent(s). FIG. 4B illustrates an example of the code for creating avisualization in a runtime environment such as Java. FIG. 4C illustratesan example of the code for creating a visualization with the way dynamicloading of JavaScript works with RequireJS.

For service dependency injection, some embodiments may create acomponent hierarchy such as the example shown in FIG. 4D. Whencomponents are being loaded asynchronously, some embodiments may ensurethat the sequencing of state changes are performed in a controlledmanner. Certain embodiments may ensure that a parent is not set to startuntil all children are ready to be started. In some embodiments, toprevent problems when there are dependencies in between siblings orbetween branches of the tree, some embodiments utilize reversedependency declaration. For example, service registries may need to bepopulated before other parts of the tree can reach running state. Incertain embodiments, components can declare that they are a dependencyfor another component. Some embodiments allow any extension point orcomponent to provide information about reverse dependencies.

In some embodiments, services may want to ensure that their code isloaded before the host to which they want to attached themselves. Thisenables a services, e.g., a data service in FIG. 4D to declare that itis a dependency for the report component. In some embodiments, the dataservice may attach itself to the report by implementing anotherextension point. In certain embodiments, a service may not know who willbe the consumer of it. As such, some embodiments may allow an extensionpoint to declare that everyone that implements that extension point willbe part of a named group and another component may declare that itdepends on all members of that group. In an example, the visual analyzerapplication can use this to allow contribution of color schemedeclaration to multiple consumers of color schemes.

The component hierarchical dependency graph 400 can show the dependencyrelationship among various components/services for a visual analyzerapplication in accordance with embodiments. Conventionally, the reportmay declare that it needs a data service, and then when a data serviceis needed for a map visualization, then the top-level report may bechanged to inform that it needs to create a hook for the data service.In a data visual analyzer system that is accessed via a Web browser,visualizations may be created and displayed through the Web browser. Insuch a Web environment, an instance cannot be created immediatelywithout doing an asynchronous call to the server to download theJavaScript file. Further, in some instances, upfront knowledge about allthe components is not desirable. In some embodiments, the new sharedservices need to be created in a central service registry byimplementers of components in the system before any of the componentscan be created. Otherwise, those components may not be easilyinstantiated and the system may be busy waiting or polling the serviceregistry for the shared components to appear.

Some embodiments determine whether one or more services should beavailable when a report is started. The report component may not andneed not be aware of the service, but since other components that arehosted by the report component may need access to the data service whenthey are instantiated, the service may declare that it is a dependencyon the report so that an instance of the data service may be created(and a handle to the report can be given to the data service) whenever auser tries to create a report. As such, the data service can hook itselfinto the report and other components that need the data service can askthe service registry (hosted by the report) for an instance of the dataservice. In this instance, these other components can trust that thedata service will always be available because the system has enabled thedata service to hook itself in when the report was created.

In one example, component A and component B can be deliveredindependently from the root application. If multiple instances ofcomponent B is created where all of them need component A, instead ofhaving all of them try to create component A, the reverse dependencyframework makes it such that component A declares it is a dependency ofa root component, component B. As such, the framework solves the problemof not creating too many instances and having all of them to wait forthe creation of the instances to be completed.

In certain embodiments, the visual analyzer component running on themobile/client device can be doing all the processing in the Web browser.In some embodiments, the framework parses the dependency tree on theserver before it is delivered to the client. Before shipping anything tothe server, the dependency graph is generated, and if there is aloop/cycles, then the user may not be able to start the application. Insome embodiments, the client side plugin framework can be based on ideasused in other plugin frameworks, e.g., the Eclipse framework, whereplugins can declare dependencies on other plugins, to ensure that theplugin can execute properly when loading.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, one or more sub-components of a plugincomponent can have a list of immediate dependencies (also referred to asforward dependencies), and a second order of dependencies (also referredto as reverse dependencies). As described, as JavaScript has a singlethread of execution, it may take more time to download certain componentas they are needed and requested. Further, the application may need tokeep track of the components that have and have not been loaded in orderto determine whether the sub-component may need to be loaded. To avoidcreating disjointedness while the user is interacting with the visualanalyzer application via a Web browser, embodiments may ensure thatdependencies of a plugin are loaded before indicating that the plugin isready for execution.

For example, component A can declare a forward dependency on B and D. Inother words, A declares that it is dependent on B and D. C can declarethat it is a dependency of A. In other words, C may have a reversedependency relationship with A, where A is unaware of C's existence(i.e., the software code and declarations of A does not mention C). Uponreceiving a user request to execute a plugin that includes A and C, someembodiments may determine the forward and reverse dependencies of A andC. As described, a dependency graph can be generated based on the codedeclarations and an ordered list of components generated based on thedependency graph. The system may then load the components per theordered list of components and indicate that the plugin is ready forexecution

V. Another Example Flow

In a regular forward dependency pattern, a visualization may declarethat it has a dependency on a data service. However, when the systemcreates two visualizations per the user's request where each of thevisualizations need an instance of a data service, inefficiencies ariseif the system then creates an instance of a data service for each of thevisualizations. Some embodiments may minimize inefficiencies by enablinga component to declare that it is a dependency of another component.

In one example, without requiring a visualization to declare adependency relationship with a data service, the data service maydeclare that it is a dependency for the visualization. An instance ofthe data service may be created and loaded when an instance of thevisualization is created (e.g., concurrently) and the system may allowmultiple visualizations to use the same instance of the data service,instead of loading multiple instances of that service. Since the serviceis already loaded, subsequent instances of the visualization can use thesame instance of the previously loaded component instance (e.g., dataservice instance). Not only does multiple instances of the componentinstance no longer need to be created, the component instance is readilyavailable when required by another component, minimizing any lag timeand improving the user experience.

In some embodiments, the data service may declare that it is adependency for the report. Whenever the user would like to start areport component, the framework can create an instance of the dataservice and does not permit a user to interact with the report until thedata service is available. This framework ensures that once the userstarts to create the data visualizations, the instance of the dataservice is available and accessible to the various data visualizations.This prevents the situation of two components separately requiring andcreating an instance of a data service. In certain embodiments, theuser's requests to create the data visualizations are combined into onerequest to ensure that only one instance of the data service is created.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process 500 for enabling one or morecomponents to use a pre-loaded instance of a data service component whenreverse dependency injection is utilized in accordance with certainembodiments of the present invention. Some embodiments allow a componentto declare that the component is a dependency of another component, orthat the component has a “reverse dependency relationship” with theother component. In some embodiments, a system may create and load aninstance of the component when a user indicates a desire to interactwith the other component and prior to allowing the user to interact withthe other component, as the component is a dependency of the othercomponent. In such embodiments, the other component may not startexecuting until all the dependencies are loaded. This minimizes any userwait time when the user is interacting with the other component such asa data visualization that requires a data service to function.

At block 502, process 500 can store, by one or more processors, firstdependency information for a first component, the first dependencyinformation indicating that the first component is a dependency of asecond component (i.e., a reverse dependency relationship). In someembodiments, the first component is a data service component and thesecond component is a report component. Some embodiments may also storesecond dependency information for the second component. In someembodiments, the second dependency information does not indicate thatthe second component is dependent upon the first component. The secondcomponent need not know about the first component. In certainembodiments, the second dependency information can include a forwarddependency relationship with a third component or a reverse dependencyrelationship with a third component.

At block 504, process 500 can receive a signal to load the secondcomponent. In some embodiments, the signal to load the second componentcan be received when a user indicates that the user desires to interactwith the second component. In certain embodiments, a user may start acomponent such as a report component that sends a visual analyzerapplication a signal to load the report component. The second componentcan be a plugin component in some embodiments.

At block 506, process 500 can determine based on the first dependencyinformation, that the first component is a dependency of the secondcomponent. In some embodiments, the first dependency information can bepart of configuration information associated with the first component.Some embodiments can determine the dependency information based on thesoftware code declarations for a component. Based on the dependencyinformation, some embodiments may determine that a component is adependency of another component, or in other words, that the componenthas a reverse dependency relationship with the other component. In someembodiments, this reverse dependency relationship declares that thefirst component (e.g., a data service component) is needed by the secondcomponent (e.g., a report component) and that, while the secondcomponent may not be aware of the first component, the application isrequires to have the first component loaded before allowing a user tointeract with the second component.

At block 508, process 500 can load both an instance of the firstcomponent and an instance of the second component responsive to thesignal. Some embodiments create an instance of each of the componentsand load them (e.g., onto the client device) in response to the user'srequest to start and interact with the second component.

At block 510, process 500 can receive, via the second component, a firstrequest to create an instance of a first visualization component and asecond request to create an instance of a second visualizationcomponent. In some embodiments, the request to create an instance of thevisualization components can be received when the user requests tointeract with one or more visualization components part of a visualanalyzer application. In certain embodiments, an instance of the firstvisualization component can be a pie chart, a line chart, a bar chart, ascatterplot, or a map chart, etc. The requested interaction with the oneor more visualization components can include, but is not limited to, acreation of a visualization component or a modification such as addingor removing a data dimension represented by the visualization.

At block 512, process 500 can, responsive to the first request, load aninstance of the first visualization component. The first visualizationcomponent can be dependent upon the first component in some embodiments.In certain embodiments, a user may request to interact or create avisualization component. Upon receiving the user's request, the visualanalyzer application may create and load an instance of thevisualization component.

At block 514, process 500 can use, by the instance of the firstvisualization component, the instance of the first component. In someembodiments, interaction with the visualization component may require acall to a component instance such as a data service instance. Instead ofpausing the application while the visualization component sends arequest to create an instance of the data service in response toreceiving the user request to interact with the visualization component,the data service instance may be readily available, minimizing anydelays in the interaction. Signaling to the application to create theinstance of the data service at the moment or shortly subsequent to whenthe user makes the request would cause the application to lag while itfetches the necessary information and loads the required componentinstances (also referred to as components in this disclosure) e.g., ontothe client device.

At block 516, process 500 can, responsive to the second request, load aninstance of the second visualization component, the second visualizationcomponent depending upon the first component. Similarly, the user mayrequest to interact or create another visualization component. Thevisual analyzer application may create and load an instance of the othervisualization component in response to receiving the user's request.

At block 518, process 500 can use, by the instance of the secondvisualization component, the same instance of the first component. Sincean instance of the first component has already been created and loaded,the application need not create another instance of the first componentfor the other visualization component to use. As such, when multiplevisualization components are to be created, the problem of potentiallycreating multiple instances of the data service components is avoidedsince the visualization components can all use the same instance of thepre-loaded data service component. Embodiments further improvesefficiency in interacting with various visual analyzer components via aWeb browser since the user no longer need to go back and forth with theserver to retrieve dependency information and load a component (e.g., adata service component) when it is determined to be needed.

VI. Example Distributed System

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified diagram of a distributed system 600 forimplementing an embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, distributedsystem 600 includes one or more client computing devices 602, 604, 606,and 608, which are configured to execute and operate a clientapplication such as a web browser, proprietary client (e.g., OracleForms), or the like over one or more network(s) 610. Server 612 may becommunicatively coupled with remote client computing devices 602, 604,606, and 608 via network 610.

In various embodiments, server 612 may be adapted to run one or moreservices or software applications such as services and applications thatprovide the document (e.g., webpage) analysis and modification-relatedprocessing. In certain embodiments, server 612 may also provide otherservices or software applications that can include non-virtual andvirtual environments. In some embodiments, these services may be offeredas web-based or cloud services or under a Software as a Service (SaaS)model to the users of client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and/or608. Users operating client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and/or 608may in turn utilize one or more client applications to interact withserver 612 to utilize the services provided by these components.

In the configuration depicted in FIG. 6, software components 618, 620and 622 of system 600 are shown as being implemented on server 612. Inother embodiments, one or more of the components of system 600 and/orthe services provided by these components may also be implemented by oneor more of the client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and/or 608. Usersoperating the client computing devices may then utilize one or moreclient applications to use the services provided by these components.These components may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, orcombinations thereof. It should be appreciated that various differentsystem configurations are possible, which may be different fromdistributed system 600. The embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is thus oneexample of a distributed system for implementing an embodiment systemand is not intended to be limiting.

Client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and/or 608 may include varioustypes of computing systems. For example, client computing devices mayinclude portable handheld devices (e.g., an iPhone®, cellular telephone,an iPad®, computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) orwearable devices (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), runningsoftware such as Microsoft Windows Mobile °, and/or a variety of mobileoperating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 10,Palm OS, and the like. The devices may support various applications suchas various Internet-related apps, e-mail, short message service (SMS)applications, and may use various other communication protocols. Theclient computing devices may also include general purpose personalcomputers including, by way of example, personal computers and/or laptopcomputers running various versions of Microsoft Windows®, AppleMacintosh®, and/or Linux operating systems. The client computing devicescan be workstation computers running any of a variety ofcommercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems, includingwithout limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operating systems, such asfor example, Google Chrome OS. Client computing devices may also includeelectronic devices such as a thin-client computer, an Internet-enabledgaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox® gaming console with or without aKinect® gesture input device), and/or a personal messaging device,capable of communicating over network(s) 610.

Although distributed system 600 in FIG. 6 is shown with four clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices, such as devices with sensors, etc., mayinteract with server 612.

Network(s) 610 in distributed system 600 may be any type of networkfamiliar to those skilled in the art that can support datacommunications using any of a variety of available protocols, includingwithout limitation TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internetprotocol), SNA (systems network architecture), IPX (Internet packetexchange), AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, network(s)610 can be a local area network (LAN), networks based on Ethernet,Token-Ring, a wide-area network (WAN), the Internet, a virtual network,a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, an extranet, a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), an infra-red network, a wirelessnetwork (e.g., a network operating under any of the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics (IEEE) 802.11 suite of protocols, Bluetooth®,and/or any other wireless protocol), and/or any combination of theseand/or other networks.

Server 612 may be composed of one or more general purpose computers,specialized server computers (including, by way of example, PC (personalcomputer) servers, UNIX® servers, mid-range servers, mainframecomputers, rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters,or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. Server 612 caninclude one or more virtual machines running virtual operating systems,or other computing architectures involving virtualization. One or moreflexible pools of logical storage devices can be virtualized to maintainvirtual storage devices for the server. Virtual networks can becontrolled by server 612 using software defined networking. In variousembodiments, server 612 may be adapted to run one or more services orsoftware applications described in the foregoing disclosure. Forexample, server 612 may correspond to a server for performing processingas described above according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Server 612 may run an operating system including any of those discussedabove, as well as any commercially available server operating system.Server 612 may also run any of a variety of additional serverapplications and/or mid-tier applications, including HTTP (hypertexttransport protocol) servers, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, CGI(common gateway interface) servers, JAVA® servers, database servers, andthe like. Exemplary database servers include without limitation thosecommercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM(International Business Machines), and the like.

In some implementations, server 612 may include one or more applicationsto analyze and consolidate data feeds and/or event updates received fromusers of client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and 608. As an example,data feeds and/or event updates may include, but are not limited to,Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates or real-time updates received from oneor more third party information sources and continuous data streams,which may include real-time events related to sensor data applications,financial tickers, network performance measuring tools (e.g., networkmonitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysistools, automobile traffic monitoring, and the like. Server 612 may alsoinclude one or more applications to display the data feeds and/orreal-time events via one or more display devices of client computingdevices 602, 604, 606, and 608.

Distributed system 600 may also include one or more databases 614 and616. These databases may provide a mechanism for storing informationsuch as user interactions information, usage patterns information,adaptation rules information, and other information used by embodimentsof the present invention. Databases 614 and 616 may reside in a varietyof locations. By way of example, one or more of databases 614 and 616may reside on a non-transitory storage medium local to (and/or residentin) server 612. Alternatively, databases 614 and 616 may be remote fromserver 612 and in communication with server 612 via a network-based ordedicated connection. In one set of embodiments, databases 614 and 616may reside in a storage-area network (SAN). Similarly, any necessaryfiles for performing the functions attributed to server 612 may bestored locally on server 612 and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one setof embodiments, databases 614 and 616 may include relational databases,such as databases provided by Oracle, that are adapted to store, update,and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

VII. Example System Environment

In some embodiments, the document analysis and modification servicesdescribed above may be offered as services via a cloud environment. FIG.7 is a simplified block diagram of one or more components of a systemenvironment 700 in which services may be offered as cloud services, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In theillustrated embodiment in FIG. 7, system environment 700 includes one ormore client computing devices 704, 706, and 708 that may be used byusers to interact with a cloud infrastructure system 702 that providescloud services, including services for dynamically modifying documents(e.g., webpages) responsive to usage patterns. Cloud infrastructuresystem 702 may comprise one or more computers and/or servers that mayinclude those described above for server 612.

It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system 702 depictedin FIG. 7 may have other components than those depicted. Further, theembodiment shown in FIG. 7 is only one example of a cloud infrastructuresystem that may incorporate an embodiment of the invention. In someother embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 702 may have more orfewer components than shown in the figure, may combine two or morecomponents, or may have a different configuration or arrangement ofcomponents.

Client computing devices 704, 706, and 708 may be devices similar tothose described above for 602, 604, 606, and 608. Client computingdevices 704, 706, and 708 may be configured to operate a clientapplication such as a web browser, a proprietary client application(e.g., Oracle Forms), or some other application, which may be used by auser of the client computing device to interact with cloudinfrastructure system 702 to use services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 702. Although exemplary system environment 700 isshown with three client computing devices, any number of clientcomputing devices may be supported. Other devices such as devices withsensors, etc. may interact with cloud infrastructure system 702.

Network(s) 710 may facilitate communications and exchange of databetween clients 704, 706, and 708 and cloud infrastructure system 702.Each network may be any type of network familiar to those skilled in theart that can support data communications using any of a variety ofcommercially-available protocols, including those described above fornetwork(s) 610.

In certain embodiments, services provided by cloud infrastructure system702 may include a host of services that are made available to users ofthe cloud infrastructure system on demand. In addition to servicesrelated to dynamic document modification responsive usage patterns,various other services may also be offered including without limitationonline data storage and backup solutions, Web-based e-mail services,hosted office suites and document collaboration services, databaseprocessing, managed technical support services, and the like. Servicesprovided by the cloud infrastructure system can dynamically scale tomeet the needs of its users.

In certain embodiments, a specific instantiation of a service providedby cloud infrastructure system 702 may be referred to herein as a“service instance.” In general, any service made available to a user viaa communication network, such as the Internet, from a cloud serviceprovider's system is referred to as a “cloud service.” Typically, in apublic cloud environment, servers and systems that make up the cloudservice provider's system are different from the customer's ownon-premises servers and systems. For example, a cloud service provider'ssystem may host an application, and a user may, via a communicationnetwork such as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

In some examples, a service in a computer network cloud infrastructuremay include protected computer network access to storage, a hosteddatabase, a hosted web server, a software application, or other serviceprovided by a cloud vendor to a user, or as otherwise known in the art.For example, a service can include password-protected access to remotestorage on the cloud through the Internet. As another example, a servicecan include a web service-based hosted relational database and ascript-language middleware engine for private use by a networkeddeveloper. As another example, a service can include access to an emailsoftware application hosted on a cloud vendor's website.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 702 may include asuite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings thatare delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based,elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. Anexample of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloudprovided by the present assignee.

Cloud infrastructure system 702 may also provide “big data” elatedcomputation and analysis services. The term “big data” is generally usedto refer to extremely large data sets that can be stored and manipulatedby analysts and researchers to visualize large amounts of data, detecttrends, and/or otherwise interact with the data. This big data andrelated applications can be hosted and/or manipulated by aninfrastructure system on many levels and at different scales. Tens,hundreds, or thousands of processors linked in parallel can act uponsuch data in order to present it or simulate external forces on the dataor what it represents. These data sets can involve structured data, suchas that organized in a database or otherwise according to a structuredmodel, and/or unstructured data (e.g., emails, images, data blobs(binary large objects), web pages, complex event processing). Byleveraging an ability of an embodiment to relatively quickly focus more(or fewer) computing resources upon an objective, the cloudinfrastructure system may be better available to carry out tasks onlarge data sets based on demand from a business, government agency,research organization, private individual, group of like-mindedindividuals or organizations, or other entity.

In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 702 may be adaptedto automatically provision, manage and track a customer's subscriptionto services offered by cloud infrastructure system 702. Cloudinfrastructure system 702 may provide the cloud services via differentdeployment models. For example, services may be provided under a publiccloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 702 is owned by anorganization selling cloud services (e.g., owned by Oracle Corporation)and the services are made available to the general public or differentindustry enterprises. As another example, services may be provided undera private cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 702 isoperated solely for a single organization and may provide services forone or more entities within the organization. The cloud services mayalso be provided under a community cloud model in which cloudinfrastructure system 702 and the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 702 are shared by several organizations in arelated community. The cloud services may also be provided under ahybrid cloud model, which is a combination of two or more differentmodels.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 702 may include one or more services provided under Software as aService (SaaS) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category,Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories ofservices including hybrid services. A customer, via a subscriptionorder, may order one or more services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 702. Cloud infrastructure system 702 then performs processing toprovide the services in the customer's subscription order.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 702 may include, without limitation, application services,platform services and infrastructure services. In some examples,application services may be provided by the cloud infrastructure systemvia a SaaS platform. The SaaS platform may be configured to providecloud services that fall under the SaaS category. For example, the SaaSplatform may provide capabilities to build and deliver a suite ofon-demand applications on an integrated development and deploymentplatform. The SaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the SaaS services. Byutilizing the services provided by the SaaS platform, customers canutilize applications executing on the cloud infrastructure system.Customers can acquire the application services without the need forcustomers to purchase separate licenses and support. Various differentSaaS services may be provided. Examples include, without limitation,services that provide solutions for sales performance management,enterprise integration, and business flexibility for largeorganizations.

In some embodiments, platform services may be provided by cloudinfrastructure system 702 via a PaaS platform. The PaaS platform may beconfigured to provide cloud services that fall under the PaaS category.Examples of platform services may include without limitation servicesthat enable organizations (such as Oracle) to consolidate existingapplications on a shared, common architecture, as well as the ability tobuild new applications that leverage the shared services provided by theplatform. The PaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the PaaS services. Customerscan acquire the PaaS services provided by cloud infrastructure system702 without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses andsupport. Examples of platform services include, without limitation,Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS),and others.

By utilizing the services provided by the PaaS platform, customers canemploy programming languages and tools supported by the cloudinfrastructure system and also control the deployed services. In someembodiments, platform services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include database cloud services, middleware cloud services(e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services), and Java cloud services. Inone embodiment, database cloud services may support shared servicedeployment models that enable organizations to pool database resourcesand offer customers a Database as a Service in the form of a databasecloud. Middleware cloud services may provide a platform for customers todevelop and deploy various business applications, and Java cloudservices may provide a platform for customers to deploy Javaapplications, in the cloud infrastructure system.

Various different infrastructure services may be provided by an IaaSplatform in the cloud infrastructure system. The infrastructure servicesfacilitate the management and control of the underlying computingresources, such as storage, networks, and other fundamental computingresources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platformand the PaaS platform.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 702 may also includeinfrastructure resources 730 for providing the resources used to providevarious services to customers of the cloud infrastructure system. In oneembodiment, infrastructure resources 730 may include pre-integrated andoptimized combinations of hardware, such as servers, storage, andnetworking resources to execute the services provided by the PaaSplatform and the SaaS platform, and other resources.

In some embodiments, resources in cloud infrastructure system 702 may beshared by multiple users and dynamically re-allocated per demand.Additionally, resources may be allocated to users in different timezones. For example, cloud infrastructure system 702 may enable a firstset of users in a first time zone to utilize resources of the cloudinfrastructure system for a specified number of hours and then enablethe re-allocation of the same resources to another set of users locatedin a different time zone, thereby maximizing the utilization ofresources.

In certain embodiments, a number of internal shared services 732 may beprovided that are shared by different components or modules of cloudinfrastructure system 702 to enable provision of services by cloudinfrastructure system 702. These internal shared services may include,without limitation, a security and identity service, an integrationservice, an enterprise repository service, an enterprise managerservice, a virus scanning and white list service, a high availability,backup and recovery service, service for enabling cloud support, anemail service, a notification service, a file transfer service, and thelike.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 702 may providecomprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaSservices) in the cloud infrastructure system. In one embodiment, cloudmanagement functionality may include capabilities for provisioning,managing and tracking a customer's subscription received by cloudinfrastructure system 702, and the like.

In one embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 7, cloud management functionalitymay be provided by one or more modules, such as an order managementmodule 720, an order orchestration module 722, an order provisioningmodule 724, an order management and monitoring module 726, and anidentity management module 728. These modules may include or be providedusing one or more computers and/or servers, which may be general purposecomputers, specialized server computers, server farms, server clusters,or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination.

In an exemplary operation, at 734, a customer using a client device,such as client device 704, 706 or 708, may interact with cloudinfrastructure system 702 by requesting one or more services provided bycloud infrastructure system 702 and placing an order for a subscriptionfor one or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 702. Incertain embodiments, the customer may access a cloud User Interface (UI)such as cloud UI 712, cloud UI 714 and/or cloud UI 716 and place asubscription order via these UIs. The order information received bycloud infrastructure system 702 in response to the customer placing anorder may include information identifying the customer and one or moreservices offered by the cloud infrastructure system 702 that thecustomer intends to subscribe to.

At 736, the order information received from the customer may be storedin an order database 718. If this is a new order, a new record may becreated for the order. In one embodiment, order database 718 can be oneof several databases operated by cloud infrastructure system 718 andoperated in conjunction with other system elements.

At 738, the order information may be forwarded to an order managementmodule 720 that may be configured to perform billing and accountingfunctions related to the order, such as verifying the order, and uponverification, booking the order.

At 740, information regarding the order may be communicated to an orderorchestration module 722 that is configured to orchestrate theprovisioning of services and resources for the order placed by thecustomer. In some instances, order orchestration module 722 may use theservices of order provisioning module 724 for the provisioning. Incertain embodiments, order orchestration module 722 enables themanagement of business processes associated with each order and appliesbusiness logic to determine whether an order should proceed toprovisioning.

As shown in the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7, at 742, upon receiving anorder for a new subscription, order orchestration module 722 sends arequest to order provisioning module 724 to allocate resources andconfigure resources needed to fulfill the subscription order. Orderprovisioning module 724 enables the allocation of resources for theservices ordered by the customer. Order provisioning module 724 providesa level of abstraction between the cloud services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 700 and the physical implementation layer that isused to provision the resources for providing the requested services.This enables order orchestration module 722 to be isolated fromimplementation details, such as whether or not services and resourcesare actually provisioned on the fly or pre-provisioned and onlyallocated/assigned upon request.

At 744, once the services and resources are provisioned, a notificationmay be sent to the subscribing customers indicating that the requestedservice is now ready for use. In some instance, information (e.g. alink) may be sent to the customer that enables the customer to startusing the requested services.

At 746, a customer's subscription order may be managed and tracked by anorder management and monitoring module 726. In some instances, ordermanagement and monitoring module 726 may be configured to collect usagestatistics regarding a customer use of subscribed services. For example,statistics may be collected for the amount of storage used, the amountof data transferred, the number of users, and the amount of system uptime and system down time, and the like.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 700 may include anidentity management module 728 that is configured to provide identityservices, such as access management and authorization services in cloudinfrastructure system 700. In some embodiments, identity managementmodule 728 may control information about customers who wish to utilizethe services provided by cloud infrastructure system 702. Suchinformation can include information that authenticates the identities ofsuch customers and information that describes which actions thosecustomers are authorized to perform relative to various system resources(e.g., files, directories, applications, communication ports, memorysegments, etc.) Identity management module 728 may also include themanagement of descriptive information about each customer and about howand by whom that descriptive information can be accessed and modified.

VII. Example Computer System

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer system 800 that may be used toimplement an embodiment of the present invention. In some embodiments,computer system 800 may be used to implement any of the various serversand computer systems described above. As shown in FIG. 8, computersystem 800 includes various subsystems including a processing unit 804that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bussubsystem 802. These peripheral subsystems may include a processingacceleration unit 806, an I/O subsystem 808, a storage subsystem 818 anda communications subsystem 824. Storage subsystem 818 may includetangible computer-readable storage media 822 and a system memory 810.

Bus subsystem 802 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 800 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 802 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple buses. Bus subsystem 802 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Forexample, such architectures may include an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can beimplemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1standard, and the like.

Processing subsystem 804 controls the operation of computer system 800and may comprise one or more processing units 832, 834, etc. Aprocessing unit may include be one or more processors, including singlecore or multicore processors, one or more cores of processors, orcombinations thereof. In some embodiments, processing subsystem 804 caninclude one or more special purpose co-processors such as graphicsprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), or the like. In someembodiments, some or all of the processing units of processing subsystem804 can be implemented using customized circuits, such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), or field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs).

In some embodiments, the processing units in processing subsystem 804can execute instructions stored in system memory 810 or on computerreadable storage media 822. In various embodiments, the processing unitscan execute a variety of programs or code instructions and can maintainmultiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any giventime, some or all of the program code to be executed can be resident insystem memory 810 and/or on computer-readable storage media 822including potentially on one or more storage devices. Through suitableprogramming, processing subsystem 804 can provide variousfunctionalities described above for dynamically modifying documents(e.g., webpages) responsive to usage patterns.

In certain embodiments, a processing acceleration unit 806 may beprovided for performing customized processing or for off-loading some ofthe processing performed by processing subsystem 804 so as to acceleratethe overall processing performed by computer system 800.

I/O subsystem 808 may include devices and mechanisms for inputtinginformation to computer system 800 and/or for outputting informationfrom or via computer system 800. In general, use of the term “inputdevice” is intended to include all possible types of devices andmechanisms for inputting information to computer system 800. Userinterface input devices may include, for example, a keyboard, pointingdevices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screenincorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, abutton, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voice commandrecognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. Userinterface input devices may also include motion sensing and/or gesturerecognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect® motion sensor thatenables users to control and interact with an input device, theMicrosoft Xbox® 360 game controller, devices that provide an interfacefor receiving input using gestures and spoken commands. User interfaceinput devices may also include eye gesture recognition devices such asthe Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity (e.g.,“blinking” while taking pictures and/or making a menu selection) fromusers and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device(e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, user interface input devices mayinclude voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interactwith voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri® navigator), through voicecommands.

Other examples of user interface input devices include, withoutlimitation, three dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks,gamepads and graphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers,digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams,image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3Dprinters, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices.Additionally, user interface input devices may include, for example,medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography, magneticresonance imaging, position emission tomography, medical ultrasonographydevices. User interface input devices may also include, for example,audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instrumentsand the like.

User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicatorlights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. Thedisplay subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device,such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, aprojection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of theterm “output device” is intended to include all possible types ofdevices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system800 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface outputdevices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devicesthat visually convey text, graphics and audio/video information such asmonitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems,plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

Storage subsystem 818 provides a repository or data store for storinginformation that is used by computer system 800. Storage subsystem 818provides a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium forstoring the basic programming and data constructs that provide thefunctionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules,instructions) that when executed by processing subsystem 804 provide thefunctionality described above may be stored in storage subsystem 818.The software may be executed by one or more processing units ofprocessing subsystem 804. Storage subsystem 818 may also provide arepository for storing data used in accordance with the presentinvention.

Storage subsystem 818 may include one or more non-transitory memorydevices, including volatile and non-volatile memory devices. As shown inFIG. 8, storage subsystem 818 includes a system memory 810 and acomputer-readable storage media 822. System memory 810 may include anumber of memories including a volatile main random access memory (RAM)for storage of instructions and data during program execution and anon-volatile read only memory (ROM) or flash memory in which fixedinstructions are stored. In some implementations, a basic input/outputsystem (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transferinformation between elements within computer system 800, such as duringstart-up, may typically be stored in the ROM. The RAM typically containsdata and/or program modules that are presently being operated andexecuted by processing subsystem 804. In some implementations, systemmemory 810 may include multiple different types of memory, such asstatic random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory(DRAM).

By way of example, and not limitation, as depicted in FIG. 8, systemmemory 810 may store application programs 812, which may include clientapplications, Web browsers, mid-tier applications, relational databasemanagement systems (RDBMS), etc., program data 814, and an operatingsystem 816. By way of example, operating system 816 may include variousversions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/or Linux operatingsystems, a variety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-likeoperating systems (including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linuxoperating systems, the Google Chrome® OS, and the like) and/or mobileoperating systems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry®10 OS, and Palm® OS operating systems.

Computer-readable storage media 822 may store programming and dataconstructs that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software(programs, code modules, instructions) that, when executed by processingsubsystem 804 provides the functionality described above, may be storedin storage subsystem 818. By way of example, computer-readable storagemedia 822 may include non-volatile memory such as a hard disk drive, amagnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive such as a CD ROM, DVD, aBlu-Ray® disk, or other optical media. Computer-readable storage media822 may include, but is not limited to, Zip® drives, flash memory cards,universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVDdisks, digital video tape, and the like. Computer-readable storage media822 may also include, solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatilememory such as flash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solidstate ROM, and the like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solidstate RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistiveRAM (MRAM) SSDs, and hybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM andflash memory based SSDs. Computer-readable media 822 may provide storageof computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, andother data for computer system 800.

In certain embodiments, storage subsystem 800 may also include acomputer-readable storage media reader 820 that can further be connectedto computer-readable storage media 822. Together and, optionally, incombination with system memory 810, computer-readable storage media 822may comprehensively represent remote, local, fixed, and/or removablestorage devices plus storage media for storing computer-readableinformation.

In certain embodiments, computer system 800 may provide support forexecuting one or more virtual machines. Computer system 800 may executea program such as a hypervisor for facilitating the configuring andmanaging of the virtual machines. Each virtual machine may be allocatedmemory, compute (e.g., processors, cores), I/O, and networkingresources. Each virtual machine typically runs its own operating system,which may be the same as or different from the operating systemsexecuted by other virtual machines executed by computer system 800.Accordingly, multiple operating systems may potentially be runconcurrently by computer system 800. Each virtual machine generally runsindependently of the other virtual machines.

Communications subsystem 824 provides an interface to other computersystems and networks. Communications subsystem 824 serves as aninterface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systemsfrom computer system 800. For example, communications subsystem 824 mayenable computer system 800 to establish a communication channel to oneor more client devices via the Internet for receiving and sendinginformation from and to the client devices. For example, visual analyzersystem 102 depicted in FIG. 1 may receive user interactions informationand webpage requests from client devices using communication subsystem824. Additionally, communication subsystem 824 may be used tocommunicate webpages from visual analyzer system 102 to the requestingclients.

Communication subsystem 824 may support both wired and/or wirelesscommunication protocols. For example, in certain embodiments,communications subsystem 824 may include radio frequency (RF)transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and/or data networks(e.g., using cellular telephone technology, advanced data networktechnology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (enhanced data rates for globalevolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standards, or other mobilecommunication technologies, or any combination thereof), globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver components, and/or other components.In some embodiments communications subsystem 824 can provide wirednetwork connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) in addition to or instead of awireless interface.

Communication subsystem 824 can receive and transmit data in variousforms. For example, in some embodiments, communications subsystem 824may receive input communication in the form of structured and/orunstructured data feeds 826, event streams 828, event updates 830, andthe like. For example, communications subsystem 824 may be configured toreceive (or send) data feeds 826 in real-time from users of social medianetworks and/or other communication services such as Twitter® feeds,Facebook® updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds,and/or real-time updates from one or more third party informationsources.

In certain embodiments, communications subsystem 824 may be configuredto receive data in the form of continuous data streams, which mayinclude event streams 828 of real-time events and/or event updates 830,that may be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicit end.Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, forexample, sensor data applications, financial tickers, networkperformance measuring tools (e.g. network monitoring and trafficmanagement applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like.

Communications subsystem 824 may also be configured to output thestructured and/or unstructured data feeds 826, event streams 828, eventupdates 830, and the like to one or more databases that may be incommunication with one or more streaming data source computers coupledto computer system 800.

Computer system 800 can be one of various types, including a handheldportable device (e.g., an iPhone® cellular phone, an iPad® computingtablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounteddisplay), a personal computer, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, aserver rack, or any other data processing system.

Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, thedescription of computer system 800 depicted in FIG. 8 is intended onlyas a specific example. Many other configurations having more or fewercomponents than the system depicted in FIG. 8 are possible. Based on thedisclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill inthe art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement thevarious embodiments.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.Embodiments of the present invention are not restricted to operationwithin certain specific data processing environments, but are free tooperate within a plurality of data processing environments.Additionally, although embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed using a particular series of transactions and steps, it shouldbe apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the presentinvention is not limited to the described series of transactions andsteps. Various features and aspects of the above-described embodimentsmay be used individually or jointly.

Further, while embodiments of the present invention have been describedusing a particular combination of hardware and software, it should berecognized that other combinations of hardware and software are alsowithin the scope of the present invention. Embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented only in hardware, or only in software, orusing combinations thereof. The various processes described herein canbe implemented on the same processor or different processors in anycombination. Accordingly, where components or modules are described asbeing configured to perform certain operations, such configuration canbe accomplished, e.g., by designing electronic circuits to perform theoperation, by programming programmable electronic circuits (such asmicroprocessors) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof.Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques including butnot limited to conventional techniques for inter-process communication,and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or thesame pair of processes may use different techniques at different times.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope as set forth in the claims. Thus, although specificinvention embodiments have been described, these are not intended to belimiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope ofthe following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by one or moreprocessors, a signal to load a plugin component, the plugin componentbeing associated with a plurality of components including anothercomponent, wherein the other component is a dependency of the plugincomponent; determining configuration information for the plugincomponent; based on the configuration information, generating a datastructure which represents both forward dependencies and reversedependencies among the plurality of components associated with theplugin component; analyzing the data structure to determine an orderedlist of loadings for the plurality of components; loading an instance ofthe other component and an instance of the plugin component based on theordered list of loadings; upon loading the instance of the othercomponent and the instance of the plugin component, indicating that theplugin component is ready for execution; receiving, via the instance ofthe plugin component, a request to create an instance of a visualizationcomponent; responsive to the request, loading the instance of thevisualization component, the visualization component being dependentupon the other component; and using, by the instance of thevisualization component, the instance of the other component.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the forward dependency indicates one or morecomponents that are declaratively needed by a component in the plugincomponent, and wherein the reverse dependency indicates that thecomponent declares that the component is needed by one or more othercomponents.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling a setof components to declare forward and reverse dependencies with anotherset of components for the plugin component, wherein a first component isdeclared to be a reverse dependency of a second component, and whereinthe first component is loaded prior to providing an indication that thesecond component is ready for execution.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the plugin component is a report component or a datavisualization component of a visual analyzer application and wherein theother component is a data service component.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the configuration information includes dependency informationbetween components of the plugin component, the method furthercomprising: storing first dependency information for the othercomponent, the first dependency information indicating that the othercomponent is a dependency of the plugin component, wherein determiningthe configuration information includes determining the first dependencyinformation for the other component.
 6. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: receiving, via the instance of the plugin component, anotherrequest to create an instance of another visualization component;responsive to the other request, loading an instance of the othervisualization component, the other visualization component beingdependent upon the other component; using, by the instance of the othervisualization component, the same instance of the other component. 7.The method of claim 6, further comprising: storing second dependencyinformation for the plugin component, wherein the second dependencyinformation does not indicate that the plugin component is dependentupon the other component, and wherein the second dependency informationincludes a forward or reverse dependency relationship with yet anothercomponent.
 8. A system comprising: one or more processors; and memorycoupled to the one or more processors, the memory encoded with a set ofinstructions configured to perform a process comprising: receiving, bythe one or more processors, a signal to load a plugin component, theplugin component being associated with a plurality of componentsincluding another component, wherein the other component is a dependencyof the plugin component; determining configuration information for theplugin component; based on the configuration information, generating adata structure which represents both forward dependencies and reversedependencies among the plurality of components associated with theplugin component; analyzing the data structure to determine an orderedlist of loadings for the plurality of components; loading an instance ofthe other component and an instance of the plugin component based on theordered list of loadings; upon loading the instance of the othercomponent and the instance of the plugin component, indicating that theplugin component is ready for execution; receiving, via the instance ofthe plugin component, a request to create an instance of a visualizationcomponent; responsive to the request, loading the instance of thevisualization component, the visualization component being dependentupon the other component; and using, by the instance of thevisualization component, the instance of the other component.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the forward dependency indicates one or morecomponents that are declaratively needed by a component in the plugincomponent, and wherein the reverse dependency indicates that thecomponent declares that the component is needed by one or more othercomponents.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructionsare further configured to perform the process comprising: enabling a setof components to declare forward and reverse dependencies with anotherset of components for the plugin component, wherein a first component isdeclared to be a reverse dependency of a second component, and whereinthe first component is loaded prior to providing an indication that thesecond component is ready for execution.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the plugin component is a report component or a datavisualization component of a visual analyzer application and wherein theother component is a data service component.
 12. The system of claim 8,wherein the configuration information includes dependency informationbetween components of the plugin component, and wherein the set ofinstructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:storing first dependency information for the other component, the firstdependency information indicating that the other component is adependency of the plugin component, wherein determining theconfiguration information includes determining the first dependencyinformation for the other component.
 13. The system of claim 12, whereinthe set of instructions are further configured to perform the processcomprising: receiving, via the instance of the plugin component, anotherrequest to create an instance of another visualization component;responsive to the other request, loading an instance of the othervisualization component, the other visualization component beingdependent upon the other component; using, by the instance of the othervisualization component, the same instance of the other first component.14. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions are furtherconfigured to perform the process comprising: storing second dependencyinformation for the plugin component, wherein the second dependencyinformation does not indicate that the plugin component is dependentupon the other component, and wherein the second dependency informationincludes a forward or reverse dependency relationship with yet anothercomponent.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a firstcomputing device, cause the first computing device to perform operationscomprising: receiving, by the one or more processors, a signal to load aplugin component, the plugin component being associated with a pluralityof components including another component, wherein the other componentis a dependency of the plugin component; determining configurationinformation for the plugin component; based on the configurationinformation, generating a data structure which represents both forwarddependencies and reverse dependencies among the plurality of componentsassociated with the plugin component; analyzing the data structure todetermine an ordered list of loadings for the plurality of components;loading an instance of the other component and an instance of the plugincomponent based on the ordered list of loadings; upon loading theinstance of the other component and the instance of the plugincomponent, indicating that the plugin component is ready for execution;receiving, via the instance of the plugin component, a request to createan instance of a visualization component; responsive to the request,loading the instance of the visualization component, the visualizationcomponent being dependent upon the other component; and using, by theinstance of the visualization component, the instance of the othercomponent.
 16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, whereinthe forward dependency indicates one or more components that aredeclaratively needed by a component in the plugin component, and whereinthe reverse dependency indicates that the component declares that thecomponent is needed by one or more other components.
 17. The computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions furthercause the first computing device to perform operations comprising:enabling a set of components to declare forward and reverse dependencieswith another set of components for the plugin component, wherein a firstcomponent is declared to be a reverse dependency of a second component,and wherein the first component is loaded prior to providing anindication that the second component is ready for execution.
 18. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the plugincomponent is a report component or a data visualization component of avisual analyzer application and wherein the other component is a dataservice component.
 19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18,wherein the configuration information includes dependency informationbetween components of the plugin component, and wherein the instructionsfurther cause the first computing device to perform operationscomprising: storing first dependency information for the othercomponent, the first dependency information indicating that the othercomponent is a dependency of the plugin component, wherein determiningthe configuration information includes determining the first dependencyinformation for the other component.
 20. The computer readable storagemedium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the firstcomputing device to perform operations comprising: receiving, via theinstance of the plugin component, another request to create an instanceof another visualization component; responsive to the other request,loading an instance of the other visualization component, the othervisualization component being dependent upon the other component; using,by the instance of the other visualization component, the same instanceof the other component.